Wastewater treatment biodegradation

Other bacterial strains identified as biodegrading poly(vinyl alcohol) iaclude Flavobacterium (95) 2in.dFicinetobacter (96) and many others, as well as fungi, molds, and yeasts (97). Industrial evaluations at Du Pont (98) and Air Products (99) iadicate that over 90% of poly(vinyl alcohol) entering wastewater treatment plants is removed, and hence no environmental pollution is likely. 

Linear alkylbenzenesulfonate showed no deleterious effect on agricultural crops exposed to this material (54,55). Kinetics of biodegradation have been studied in both wastewater treatment systems and natural degradation systems (48,57,58). Studies have concluded that linear alkylbenzenesulfonate does not pose a risk to the environment (50). Linear alkylbenzenesulfonate has a half-life of approximately one day in sewage sludge and natural water sources and a half-life of one to three weeks in soils. Aquatic environmental safety assessment has also shown that the material does not pose a hazard to the aquatic environment (56). 

Chlorine. Chlorine is a weU known disinfectant for water and wastewater treatment, however, it can react with organics to form toxic chlorinated compounds such as the tribalomethanes bromodichloromethane, dibromochloromethane, chloroform [67-66-3] and bromoform [75-25-2]. Chlorine dioxide [10049-04-4] may be used instead since it does not produce the troublesome chlorinated by-products as does chlorine. In addition, by-products formed by chlorine dioxide oxidation tend to be more readHy biodegradable than those of chlorine, however, chlorine dioxide is not suitable for waste streams containing cyanide. 

The widespread use of biphenyl and methyl-substituted biphenyls as dye carriers (qv) in the textile industry has given rise to significant environmental concern because of the amount released to the environment in wastewater effluent. Although biphenyl and simple alkylbiphenyls are themselves biodegradable (48—50), the prospect of their conversion by chlorination to PCBs in the course of wastewater treatment has been a subject of environmental focus (51—53). Despite the fact that the lower chlorinated biphenyls are also fairly biodegradable (49,54,55) continued environmental concern has resulted in decreased use of biphenyl as a dye carrier (see Dyes, environmental chemistry). 

With the renewed interest in environmentally friendly products, ceUulose esters are being re-evaluated as a natural source of biodegradable thermoplastics. CeUulose acetates are potentiaUy biodegradable (152). Films prepared from a ceUulose acetate with a DS of 2.5 were shown to require only a 10—12 day incubation period for extensive degradation in an in vitro enrichment assay. Similarly, films prepared from a ceUulose acetate with a DS of 1.7 saw 70% degradation in 27 days in a wastewater treatment facUity, whereas films prepared from a ceUulose acetate with a DS of 2.5 required approximately 10 weeks for similar degradation to occur. The results of this work demonstrate that ceUulose acetate fibers and films are potentiaUy environmentally nonpersistant. 

Toxicity to fish is included in the data Hsted in Table 4. Marine life, particularly fish, may suffer damage from spills in lakes and streams. The chlorobenzenes, because they are denser than water, tend to sink to the bottom and may persist in the area for a long time. However, some data indicate that dissolved 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene can be biodegraded by microorganisms from wastewater treatment plants and also has a tendency to slowly dissipate from water by volatilization (34). 

Citric acid is biodegraded readily by many organisms under aerobic and anaerobic wastewater treatment conditions and in the natural environment... 

The most important removal pathways of PhACs during wastewater treatment are biotransformation/biodegradation and abiotic removal by adsorption to the sludge. The efficiency of their removal at WWTP depends on their physico-chemical properties, especially hydrophobicity and biodegradability, and process operating parameters (i.e., HRT, SRT, and temperature). For certain NSAIDs (e.g., ibuprofen, acetaminophen), high removals (>90%) are consistently reported in literature... 

Many studies have confirmed a complete biodegradation of ibuprofen to hydroxy-ibuprofen and carboxy-ibuprofen in biological wastewater treatment, whereas removals higher than 95% have been reached [17,49,50]. For diclofenac, contradictory results have been reported for its removal during CAS wastewater treatment. In some WWTPs, attenuation of 50-70% of diclofenac was reported [6, 10, 11, 51, 52], whereas some smdies showed extremely low efficiency of conventional treatment (only 10-30% removal) [49, 53]. 

Saski EK, JK Jokela, MS Salkinoja-Salonen (1996a) Biodegradability of different size classes of bleached kraft mill effluent organic halogens during wastewater treatment and in lake environments. In Environmental Fate and Effects of Pulp and Paper Mill Effluents (Eds MR Servos, KR Munlittrick, JH Carey, and GJ van der Kraak), pp. 179-193. St Lucie Press, Delray Beach, FL. 

Koh YKK, Chiu TY, Boobis AR, Scrimshaw MD, Bagnall JP, Soares A, Pollard S, Cartmell E, Lester JN (2009) Influence of operating parameters on the biodegradation of steroid estrogens and nonylphenolic compounds during biological wastewater treatment processes. Environ Sci Technol 43 6646-6654... 

However, studies dealing with identification of biodegradation products of drugs in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are very scarce, possibly due to the complexity of screening and structural elucidation studies in environmental matrices such as wastewater and sludge. 

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